SEC Filings

of
our employees and has the authority to hire outside consultants and advisors at its discretion, though it did not do so in 2016. Notwithstanding management's participation in the executive
compensation process, all executive officer compensation determinations are made by the committee, using its independent judgment and analysis.

Role of Executive Officers. The compensation committee relies on our senior management to assist in fulfilling many of its duties, in particular our Executive Vice
President  Human Resources and Chief Executive Officer, each of whom attends part of most committee meetings. These executives make recommendations concerning our compensation
policies generally, certain specific elements of compensation for senior management (such as equity awards and bonuses), and report to the committee as to company personnel and developments. Our Chief
Executive Officer also makes specific compensation recommendations concerning our other executive officers and certain other employees. Our Chief Executive Officer does not participate in determining
his own compensation.

Addressing Risk. Our compensation committee recognizes that any incentive based compensation arrangement induces an inherent element of risk taking by senior
management. We incent
management through annual discretionary bonuses, restricted stock grants and, in some cases, performance based bonuses. The committee assesses the risk related to our compensation policies for the
named executive officers and for the employees generally, and has determined that our compensation arrangements do not lend themselves to unnecessary or excessive risk taking. The committee believes
that any inherent risk is mitigated by the following factors:

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Our compensation recovery policy noted below

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Our committee's negative discretion to reduce any performance based award

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Approximately 70% of the equity compensation we issue vests in the third and fourth years

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Rigorous internal and external audits of our field and consolidated results

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Our commitment to full compliance with our
code of conduct

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Thorough investigation of all fraud and financial-related complaints, including those received on our anonymous hotline

The
responsibilities of the compensation committee and committee member independence are described under "Our Corporate Governance" beginning on page 9.

Compensation Recovery Policy. We have a policy regarding the recovery of unfairly earned compensation. Under the policy, if our Board determines that a member of
management earned performance
based compensation or incentive compensation within the last three years due to fraud, negligence or intentional misconduct, and such conduct was a significant contributing factor to our restating our
financial statements or the reporting of material inaccuracies relating to financial reporting or other performance metrics used in those awards, our Board has the discretion to cause that employee to
repay and/or forfeit all compensation that was expressly conditioned upon the achievement of the misreported financial results.

Equity Award Approval Policy. We have an equity award approval policy which requires that all equity awards be approved by the committee and that the grant date of
all awards except those
discussed below shall be the date of the approval by the committee. As part of that policy, the compensation committee delegated to our Chief Executive Officer the authority to grant awards of up to
an aggregate of 50,000 shares of our common stock (or stock equivalents) for new hires or spot awards, provided that the awards are reported to the committee at its next meeting. Our compensation
committee believes that this delegation of authority allows us to meet our ongoing business needs in a practical manner. Our Chief Executive Officer approved awards for 17,179 shares under that
authority in 2016, which awards were ratified by the committee.